Griswold's work is done

We turned the lights on Thursday night. Everything looked good when we left. After we came back from Thanksgiving dinner at Sissy's we topped the hill and Buddy spotted the problem first. He said OH NO. There were several lights out on the side of the house where the star is. I thought it looked pretty major but when he checked it out Friday afternoon it was only where a plug had come loose. There were also several lights out on the deck, and once again no big deal that couldn't be fixed. Had to replace a net on one of the trees and voila that was it. I'll take pics of the big Santa and the reindeer herd tomorrow during daylight. Our neighbor, which has never put lights on his house was putting some up today. He said his girls kept begging him to fix their house like Buddy's. Guess we have some competition now, but he has a long way's to go to catch up with Clark (Buddy) Griswold.

This is the Sanford Christmas House

Down the driveway

Carousel Train

Thanksgiving

Heavenly Father, On Thanksgiving Day

We bow our heart to you and pray.

We give you thanks for all You've done

Especially for the gift of Jesus, Your Son.

For beauty in nature, Your glory we see

For joy and health, friends and family,

For daily provision, Your mercy and care.

These are the blessings You graciously share.

So today we offer this response of praise

With a promise to follow you all of our days.

Mary Fairchild

Nolen's Birthday Dinner

This week we let Nolen have his own birthday dinner. In the past he has shared his birthday dinner with John. So last week we let John have his pick and this week it was Nolen's turn. He wanted taco's. Along with that we had sour cream chicken enchiladas, taco rice, taquitos, quesadillas, taco soup and Monkey Bread for the Birthday Cake. I won't be cooking next Thursday as it will be Thanksgiving. The next week we will be giving Jeremy his going away to the Air Force dinner. He has decided on Philly Cheese Steak for his meal. I will have to come up with some other things to go along with it.

Nolen eating his taco

Nolen's Monkey Bread Birthday Cake What a cutie

Papaw reading to the boys

Nolen's Birthday Party

I can't believe Nolen is 4 years old. Well will be next Wednesday. He had his Birthday Party at Pump it Up. The kids all had fun, young and old alike. Kristin, Buddy, Craig, and Robbie were in the bouncy basketball court, but it turned into a dodge ball match. I may post the video later. They played in the bouncy rooms for 1 1/2 hrs then went on to the party room for refreshments and presents. Today Buddy (Griswold) started putting the Christmas Lights on the house. It was a crisp cool day, but at least the wind wasn't blowing like yesterday.

Birthday Boy This was the biggest slide Trevor wanted on. Yes this is Kristin on left and Buddy on the right coming down the slide.

Nolen coming down the slide

Nolen trying to help Ella up the slide. Mitchell trying his best to climb the rock wall. Give him a few more inches on those legs and I'm sure he will be shimmying up it in no time.

Nolen wasn't so sure about the rock wall.

Mitchell waiting in line to go try again.

Trying to get a pic of all his friends at the end of play time

Blowing out his candle

Nolen opening his presents Couldn't resist posting a few pics of the leaves while they are still hanging on.

Buddy (aka Clark Griswold) is hard at it already. It takes about 3 weekends to get all his lights up. It was a bit chilly today but check out that blue sky.

Thursday Nite Birthday Dinner

This Thursday nite we celebrated John's birthday. His birthday isn't until Nov. 19th but that is also on Nolen's birthday. I usually do their dinner together but thought they each deserved their own special day. John's request was chili dogs and chips. Wow, that was easy enough. We also had corn dogs, and tator tots. Ice Cream cake for the Birthday Boy. Nolen's Birthday party is Saturday at "Pump It UP" or as the little ones like to call it (The Jumpy Place) It is a place where they have inflatables for the kids to jump on and in, and bouncy slides. Next Thursday we will have Nolen's birthday here at the house and he has requested taco's for dinner.

John eating his chili dog.

Nolen, John, and Mitchell

John and Mitchell in their serious pose Mitchell had ice cream on his face, so John had to match him.

Rednecks on Benders Ferry Rd. Follow-up

Buddy was able to run the tag # of the guys that did the donuts in our yard. The truck is registered to an older man that lives on Noneville Rd, not far from here. Buddy got the phone # and called explaining the situation. The poor old man had no clue what was going on and Buddy felt really bad getting him involved, but the man said his son was using his truck. And that his son lives at the end of Benders Ferry Rd. (our street) in a trailer. :) Gotcha!!! But he said he really didn't think his son would do something like that but maybe his grandson (which isn't suppose to drive the truck) had done it. OOPS!!! The older man gave Buddy the cell phone # of his son. When he got him on the phone this poor guy had no clue what was going on either. Buddy explained the whole thing to him, told him exactly what we saw and that he in fact did chase them down enough to get the tag # and even told the guy what the boys were wearing, that we did in fact call the Sheriff and a report was written. The younger boy was at home and needless to say sounded to Buddy like he might of been in big trouble from his vocal reaction. He promised Buddy the yard would get fixed. We shall see. That in turn led my mom into wondering if they were the ones that had set fire to an abandoned house about 2 weeks ago and also about 2 weeks before that, at Pumpkin Hill set the tractor that was made of hay on fire. Stay tuned to Rednecks on Benders Ferry Rd. saga.

Redneck Thugs

Okay we are coming home from church talking about what a good sermon Pastor Andrew preached. He was reminding us that we shouldn't be negative about who was elected. He was talking about how we should pray for our president elect Obama. Pray that the right decisions will be made and that our country will get out of the bind it is in right now. We have all sinned and none of us can cast the first stone. We were about to turn in the driveway and I noticed tire marks in our yard. We weren't sure what had caused it. There was also a mark in our neighbors yard. My first thought was since us and our neighbor was the only ones on the street that had McCain - Palin signs in our yard, that maybe it was an Obama supporter. (OOPS sorry Andrew) Then we sat down to eat lunch and look up and there is a black truck doing donuts in our yard. Well, my dear calm, quiet husband takes off in my jeep to chase them to try to get their licence plate. By the time he was headed up the road they were coming back probably for more. They then turned around again, with Buddy on their tail and he finally caught up with them enough to get the number. There were 2 guys in the truck, he couldn't tell how old they were. Thankfully he didn't persue it anymore. Came home and called the Sheriff. They came out and wrote a report. Then Buddy decides to ride down the street looking for the truck. He did find it at the end of Benders Ferry Rd. parked in front of a single wide trailer. So when he got back we asked for forgiveness for automatically thinking that it was an Obama supporter putting their O's in our yard. Buddy had to ask for double forgiveness because he actually went and got the gun and was going to pellet the truck if it came back, and also saying he wished they had hit one of the large holes at the bottom of our hill. So now all we have is a tore up yard. If you click on the top pic it shows how bad it really is.

Zip Lock Bag Omelet

Tonight was another breakfast night. We did the make your own zip lock bag omelets. If you have not tried this it is a very easy way to make omelets for several people at one time. The recipe is to take 2 eggs drop them in a freezer zip lock bag, have a Sharpee and let them write their name on the bag and they add any ingredients you want (bacon, ham, cheese, onions, mushrooms, red pepper, green pepper) mash everything together, get all the air out of the baggie and zip it up. Drop it in boiling water and just let it stay in there for 13 minutes. Roll it right out of the bag onto your plate. You will have the fluffiest omelet you have ever had. Along with that we had sausage, bacon, biscuits, hash browns, pancakes and waffles.

Craig, Kristin, and Jamie making their omelets. Omelet in the baggie during the cooking process. After the boy's got through rolling their cars down the racetrack, Grandmother turned it into a bowling alley. They loved watching the balls roll down.

What a sweet smile

Can you say cheese Mitchell?

No problem getting a smile out of Trevor.

Kristin had to hold on to Nolen to get him to stop and pose for a pic.

Fall colors finally making it to Tennessee (most of the trees just look dried out and dead)

Let's Pray for our Country

All I can say is we need to pray for our country. Our nation needs prayer now more than ever. We need to be on our knees every day.

Heavenly Father,

We the people of the United States of America come together in prayer

for our nation.

We thank you for inspiring our forefathers to establish our nation with You as our head.

Stir our hearts to repentance and help us to restore Your values in our families, our government and our nation.

We pray for truth to prevail, for our children to turn from Satan

and wisdom for our leaders; that they will make decisions based

on what your Son, Christ Jesus taught us.

We believe in your words, that if we pray for our nation, humble ourselves and turn from our wicked ways, You will hear from heaven, forgive our sins and heal our land.

In Jesus name we pray. AMEN